First off, sure have been uplifted by the emails and phone calls I’ve received following my last entry about how anxious and down I’ve been. What a boost to be reminded by those far and wide that you are loved!

I plan to really get cranking with the blog entries. There’s so much new material I can’t wait to share. But for today, here’s a little New Year’s advice I collected from Jordan’s Sunday morning service yesterday:

“Paul writes in Philippians 1, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.’

“When I think about looking at the new year, boy that verse tells you exactly what we ought to make our new year’s resolution be; to live like that.

“Down in 3:17 he says, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“You know, there’s a lot markers in the Christian life. In Romans 16, Paul says to ‘mark them which walk contrary to the doctrine which you’ve received and avoid them,’ but here he’s talking about people walking the way Paul walks.

“You’re not to mark them to get rid of them, but you’re to mark them so you know who to hang out with. It’s the opposite kind of thing. We ought to know and identify the people who follow Paul’s ministry and identify with them and work with them. Notice verse 18 and 19 are a parenthesis. Verse 18 starts and verse 19 ends with a parenthesis.

*****

“The Bible sets up its standard of definitions for terms and it’s always important to define terms the way the Bible defines them. The word ‘conversation,’ we usually use that to say sitting around talking with people, but it’s much more than that.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, you learn a lot about people by talking to them and having a conversation with them. A conversation, in the (Bible) sense, though, is you have an exchange in ideas and thoughts. You’re really exchanging your life with someone.

“Have you ever noticed you can talk to somebody and not have a conversation? It’s where you simply don’t connect; you don’t relate.

“But when you have a conversation, as the Bible uses the word, you sit down and you’re really able to share your thinking and partake of their thinking. There’s a real connection between you. We use it just for the verbal part of it, but the word itself is describing more than just talk; it’s describing getting in touch with somebody and connecting with them on a deeper level than just talking. It’s talking about entering into their life.

Peter writes in I Peter 3, ‘Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.’

“That unsaved husband is going to watch his wife’s conversation. It’s not just talk; it’s something you can observe. What’s he seeing? Isn’t he watching her lifestyle? Her behavior? But he’s watching more than just the way she behaves; he’s watching the way she values and esteems something. The way she reacts to it. What she holds dear. In other words, he’s looking into her and seeing what’s really inside of her.

*****

“It’s easy with external things to fool people. I mean, heavens to murgatory, if you look at the stuff in the last month in the political realm, the governmental realm and the economic realm—how they fool people.

“You know this dude in New York with the ponzi scheme who milked 50 billion dollars out of smart people. Made me feel better. You know, smart people get hooked too. But what did he do? They were getting statements that said they made this money. It was all just a lie. A sham.

“So it’s about observation of conduct, looking into someone’s life and seeing that the words match what’s inside and that what’s inside lives out through the person.

“Paul says in Philippians 4:9, ‘Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.’

“You want to know how to have peace in your life? I read that verse in Timothy where Paul says, ‘You’ve known my manner of life, my doctrine, my faith,’ and so forth. And I think, ‘Wow, I have the privilege myself of teaching and leading men to preach.’

“Paul didn’t just says, ‘You’ve known the doctrine that I preach.’ He told Timothy that first thing, ‘You’ve known my manner of life.’ He says in 4:9 those ‘things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me.’ You didn’t just learn it and hear it and believe it, but you saw it working in me. That’s what you do. And when you do that, the God of peace shall be with you.

“If you want peace about something, you don’t pray for it. Praying for peace doesn’t get you peace. You do what that verse says—you embrace and put into practice what God through Paul tells you, and that allows you to rest in the security of God’s love and grace to you in Christ Jesus.

*****

“Repentance toward God is changing your mind about who God is and who you are how you’re not going to be God anymore. You lived a lie in thinking worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator was the way to go.

“You followed your own will and now you say, ‘No, I’m not God; He is,’ and you turn to God from idols—from worshipping and serving the creature. You see when you get saved you make a radical change in your life and it starts in your thinking process. It starts in your heart. Nobody ever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ that first doesn’t get lost. You got to get lost before you get saved and when you talk to people, most of the time you find out they don’t think they’re lost.

“You go up to somebody and ask them—just stop them in the mall . . . Ask them, ‘Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen something?’ They’ll say yes. Then ask them, ‘Well, what does that make you?’ They’ll say, ‘Human. Normal like everybody else.’

“It’s easier to condemn the other person than it is yourself. For lost people, condemning others is easy. Condemning themselves is the problem. To get saved, you have to understand you’re condemned. When you get lost, you change your mind about God’s authority, and then you can trust Jesus Christ. There’s a purpose in salvation.

“Paul says in Philippians, ‘I’m living sincerely and without offense. I’m the genuine article now.’ ”